A gas turbine engine typically includes a fan section, a compressor section, a combustor section, and a turbine section. A fan section may drive air along a bypass flowpath while a compressor section may drive air along a core flowpath. In general, during operation, air is pressurized in the compressor section and is mixed with fuel and burned in the combustor section to generate hot combustion gases. The hot combustion gases flow through the turbine section, which extracts energy from the hot combustion gases to power the compressor section and other gas turbine engine loads. The compressor section typically includes low pressure and high pressure compressors, and the turbine section includes low pressure and high pressure turbines.
Combustors used in gas turbine engines rely on combustor panels as thermal shields and to guide combustion gases into the turbine. These combustor panels interface with hot combustion gases and are often susceptible to structural damage and/or oxidation caused by the high temperature of the combustion gases. The structural damage and/or oxidation of the combustor panels may result in the combustor having a short operational life.